The present invention relates to devices for timing repetitive exercise periods such as athletic workouts, and more particularly for timing exercises involving alternatingly exercising and resting for predetermined periods of time which together form a complete workout or practice period.
It is believed by many that physical conditioning can be maximized by alternatingly exercising at a strenuous pace for a short period of time and thereafter resting for a short period of time, repeating such sets of exercise and rest several times to complete a workout. Athletes such as runners, boxers, swimmers, wrestlers, rowers, and those attempting to increase body fitness by other aerobic exercises find that interval training is of value. Similar schedules of practice and rest sequences are also valuable in practicing typing, shorthand, and playing musical instruments, when periods of concentration may be alternated with rest periods.
In order to avoid injury, it is best to begin an athletic workout gradually, increasing the intensity of the workout only after muscles have been warmed up by slow or moderate exercise, and blood circulation throughout the body has been increased by such initial exercise. Thereafter, exercise may be carried out at a strenuous level until the muscles being exercised have been sufficiently tired. In order to encourage circulation to continue until waste products from exercise have been removed from muscle cells, it is desirable to continue to exercise at a less strenuous pace after the most strenuous exercise of a workout has been completed. Different lengths of exercise and rest periods are therefore needed at the beginning, middle, and end of a workout or training session.
In the past, there has been no timer available which could be used to keep track of exercise and rest periods easily, to provide for a gradual increase in intensity of a workout, and to provide an indication of the passage of exercise and rest periods of different lengths during a period of cooling off after the most intense portion of a workout. As a result, a coach has had to use a stopwatch or an ordinary clock to time individual periods of exercise and periods of rest in running an interval training program. Similarly, teachers have had to time periods of speed practice and periods of rest manually during shorthand and typewriter instruction.
While timers have been available previously for providing an audible or visible signal to indicate the pace which a runner must use to cover a distance in a desired period of time, such timers do not provide signals indicating the end of each exercise period and the end of each subsequent rest period. Stopwatches which may be used to measure the time elapsed during individual laps in the course of a race are now well known, but, again, such watches do not have the capacity to signal the ends of predetermined amounts of time to be used alternatingly for exercise and subsequent period of rest.
Meshi et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,062,180, discloses an electronic chess clock which can be used to indicate repeatedly an initial amount of time available for the next move by each of a pair of opposing players, and to display continuously the amount of that initial time which remains, until that time expires or the player completes his move and operates a switch which initiates the opposing player's play period. With such a chess clock, however, each player must initiate the period of thinking time for his opponent by operating a switch at the time he completes his own move. Yoda, U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,886, discloses a digital electronic watch which has a countdown display function and which also includes the capability of providing an audible alarm at the expiration of the time period being counted down, but there is no provision for alternating exercise and rest periods.
Selwyn et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,158, discloses a countdown timer which provides an audible signal at the end of a period of time and which can be reset automatically to again count down the predetermined period of time. Selwyn et al. does not disclose, however, how to provide countdown timing and display of the time remaining in alternating exercise and rest periods of different duration.
Additionally, the prior art known to the applicant does not disclose a timing device which provides a display of the number of sets of exercise and rest periods remaining in a planned workout period. Accordingly, what is desired is a timing device which may be programmed to time and to provide a display of the time remaining in each of a sequence of exercise and subsequent rest periods of differing lengths during a workout, together with a display of the number of sets of exercise and rest periods remaining in the workout. Preferably, such a device should be easily programmable, should be capable of being reset, and should provide the possibility of continuously running to repetitively time a predetermined workout sequence of sets of exercise and rest periods.